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Monday, July 09, 2007

Just when UK police had arrested Muslim professionals on suspicion of involvement in terror plot, a medieval Muslim emperor's monument of love was chosen as one of the seven wonders of the world.

Shahjehan's gift to the world, TajMahal, is the greatest celebration of love in human history.

It's something that makes a Muslim feel proud. But when young Muslim professionals turn radical, it must send the community in introspective mode.

Of course, it is just a couple of Indian Muslims who have been caught, and though charges are yet to be proved, but the fact is that we can't ignore this trend.

The world is worried. Why young, educated Muslims who have apparently everything going for them, are so overcome with rage that they not only put their lives at stake but also bring ignominy for their family (and qaum) for life.

It hurts to see the elderly parents of Kafeel in the twilight of their life, facing the tough questions, and social disgrace.

Why can't they get passionate about some other thing--love, literature or learning. I remember six to seven years ago, during an informal chat, a friend said that Muslim men are the greatest lovers and the most sensitive ones.

I was quite surprised to hear her statement.She said that all great lovers in history have been Muslims: LailaMajnu, ShirinFarhad, HeerRanjha, SohniMahiwal, SassiPunno, Salim Anarkali, AzraWamiq, ShahjehanMumtaz or so many others. But where are they today?

I keep telling myself that it is a temporary phase. The LTTE that perfected the art of modern suicide bombings and has conducted nearly 173 such strikes, the highest in modern history, is not Muslim, and has targeted people and shrines in a predominantly Buddhist country. Its cadre comes mostly from Hindus. So is it Hindu terrorism?

Or Basque and Irish militants, Christian terrorists? There have been terror outfits belonging to other religions and sub-sects. It is equally true though that LTTE doesn't wear its religion on its sleeve. On the other hand it is also true that Muslims are readily branded as terrorists.

Yes, the geopolitics of the contemporary world and the targeting of Muslim nations for decades by US-UK along with the issue of Palestine, have led to a sense of persecution amongst Muslims but still this doesn't justify the madness we see in Iraq. Shrines are being bombed and hundreds in killed in fidayeen attacks.

Muslims feel angry when Islam is associated with fundamentalism and terror. They do feel that why the death of millions of innocents in Iraq fails to shake the world. But the fact is that everybody has grievances and we must understand that the world doesn't exactly feel the way Muslims feel. And this sense of perpetual persecution would not lead the community anywhere.

Why we don't get to hear good news from Muslim nations? Fifty years ago there was hope that countries like Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan, could emerge as modern Islamic nations. But the entire Muslim world has failed to establish even a single university that could have attracted the students from West. In Egypt, a teenaged blogger is arrested just because he wrote a post against government. Isn't it ridiculous!

Surely the Muslim world is in a state of transition. Agreed, monarchies of middle-east have deprived their citizens of their democratic rights and these kings were put in place by the vested interests of Western nations in the aftermath of Second World War. Islam doesn't have institutionalised clergy but exactly the opposite is happening.

A prestigious seminary in North India says co-education is un-Islamic (India), Don't they have a better thing to say? And another seminary in neighbouring country lets the girl students do moral policing. While a teenaged girl is shot in Afghanistan for attending a school. All such depressing news reports coming in just a week. We don't have a progressive leadership, and also there is no statesmen emerging out of Muslim world.
Is there any such political leader or personality that commands respect across the Muslim world? Someone who could put sense in the head of the fighting Shias, Sunnis in Iraq or the Fatah and Hamas cadres. (Of course, ordinary Muslims have begun speaking up, loudly, especially in Europe and America and that's a healthy sign).

There were hopes from Malaysian Mahathir Muhammad that he could be a statesman, the kind of which we need in today's world. My rant is getting longer and longer though I wish to write on another issue: the syndrome of judging your fellow co-religionists' 'purity of faith' apart from judging people on sectarian and religious scale. But that's for later.

Meer Ali Muttaqi had told his son 'betaaishqkaro, yahijilaatahaiauryahijalaataahai' (My son, do fall in love). And the teenaged son Mir TaqiMeer became one of the greatest bards of the world in eighteenth century.

Ishq-e-Majazi (love for God's creation, human beauty that evokes love) or Ishq-e-Haqiqi (real love or love for God). Whatever. But there can't be any path to God that passes through violence, killings and destruction.

* [Though it was not a UNESCO-sponsored exercise, still 100 million votes do matter.]

Naah..LTTE is not purely Hindu..it has Tamil Christians too & very little minority of Tamil Muslims also..call them Tamil terrorists..In the rest of SriLanka, there are Sinhalese Hindus too whom the Tamil Hindu’s don’t mind killing along with Sinhalese Buddhists.

“during an informal chat, a friend said that Muslim men are the greatest lovers and the most sensitive ones. I was quite surprised to hear her statement”.…u believe that ?? :)

Its not right to mix religion with love as its a very tricky subject to debate.Passion for Love is part of the Indian subcontinent. Its Nothing to do with religion. However Urdu poetry is loaded with passion of love. And its everywhere. Its in the mizaaj of the language and probably thats why Hindus Muslims and Sikhs still love the language of Bollywood movies. Aik shahenshah ne banwake kai aik hasin tajHam Ghareebon ki mohabbat ka Uraya hai mzaqueLets explore the love and romance into our lives and its not that difficult!!!! Just to let you know its very difficult to post messages at your site and I loose my write ups frequently due to verification barriers.best wishesAnser Azim, Chicago

What an interesting write! I can assure you that so long as there are 'progressive' bloggers like you there is still hope for humanity, regardless of what ethnic group they may belong to. We as people have become overtly suspicious of anything that's different from us; as a result, we are constantly on the defensive, and it is this stance that brings out the worst in us. We need to be open minded and progressive in our thoughts, and our actions will follow suit.

we would love to read more...... this.a jolt of reality ......we have to face it..........This conflict really is a clash of civilizations whose root cause is Islam's incompatibility with the modern world.if im wrong pl elbrthttp://letzchangedrulz-miracles.blogspot.com/

You said that you were interested in progressive leadership within Islam. Have you heard of the Aga Khan? I think he is just the kind of personality you are looking for. Google him, and I think you'll be satisfied with what you find.

we should definately look for progressive leadership within Islam, that leads to peace & unity. There are many issues of Muslim which needs to be addressed to the world & to the community as a whole.I find your blog as a good effort towards such a goal. Keep it up. Being a muslim, I agree with most of your thoughts.

good writing, but with factual error. LTTE is not a PURE hindu organization. IN fact, it's leaders / members include christians as well e.g. it's chief political strategist Mr. Anton Balasingham is a christian (of Tamil Origin).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Balasingham

one of d finest blogs i ve read so far.There are hardliners in every religion.It is important to do away with the bias we ve towards our religion,our language so on n so forth.You ve come clean out of that human bias.What we need is love,love and some more love to root out extremism from our thoughts.I want to knw if u r already in love coz i think i ve strted falling in love wid u!

ShahJahan and a lover? come on, the guy was after any woman he happened to get a look at. The love story is just a story, no historical evidence. If he did build it for his wife then mostly out of guilt in old age. He was a womaniser rather than a great lover.

LTTE has never taken inspiration from some hindu scriptures . so thinking them as of a hindu terrorist can not be a valid conclusion . there only motivation is from their desire of having a seperate homeland.so they can be termed as some political criminals and not some religious terrorists.

Thats the reason ltte was never thought by world community as a hindu terrorist organisation( except by you ).( Are using it as a bait, so that islam can not be criticized ......wow! what an incredible analysis.

An terrorist cam be associated with an ideology if he derives inspiration from that ideology.

The term "muslim terrorist " come in to origin due to the motivation derived from quaran by majority of the terrorists.there are video interviews of terrorist telling about how they will be get in to heaven by suicide bombing themselves( they read all that in quaran according to them).There is a reason why muslims are called terrorist , but not people from other religions.

There are many examples when muslim extremist has cited verses from quaran to justified there killing of innocent peoples , apart from political reason. But you rarely find the peoples from other religions taking motivation from their religious texts to do horrible crimes.

I think that can clear the point,that why muslims are called as terrorist. while other religions are not( untill unless there is huge conspiracy against islam by whole of the world)

i am surprized by your comparision of LTTE and so called " islamic terrorism".i am not saying that all muslims are extremist and terrorist.But when murderers and terrorist start justifying their barbarian acts by citing verses from quaran , and convincing others fellow muslims for same, then there is a need to go in to the deep in to the matter.

As far as LTTE is concerned, you cannot say they are Hindu terrorists. Their philosophy is based on Tamil Nationalism, not Hinduism. In fact the Dravidian movement is for a large part, anti-Hindu. The founder of the Dravidan movement, Periyar, was a true Hindu hater.

The top leadership of the LTTE has a lot of Christians - including its leader, Prabhakaran (whose children, including his son Charles Anthony) are well known to be Christian.

Great article. Good to see someone make an honest observation about the problems facing their own religion. Often most of us are easy to pounce on other's shortcomings while turning a blind eye to our own.@Mohan, Thanks for raising a point which had struck me as well. The world is today talking of Islamic terrorism because it is talking of a violent movement being run in the name of religion. There obviously are religious zealots amongst Hindu's as well. I count the ones who've rioted in Gujarat,demolished the Babri Masjid and committed the Staines murder amongst them.

LTTE CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP1. Nearly the entire top leadership of the LTTE are Christians- Prabhakaran, Anton Balasingham; Bhanu; Lawrence; Pottu Amman and Soosai are Methodist. Not sure about Nadesan and Tamilchelvan.

2. Most of the non-christian LTTE top ranking leaders either died in the war or were eliminated by LTTE itself (Mahendrarajah and countless others). It is speculated that this may be one of the reasons for Karuna defection.

3. In Sri Lanka, the biggest supporters of the LTTE have been the Tamil Christian clergy, from the Catholic, Methodist, Anglican and evangelical churches.

4 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ran a detailed report on another Christian priest, Father Francis Xavier who is a leading organizer and fundraiser for the Tamil Tigers in Toronto, Canada.

5. All the top people in LTTE"s front charity group, Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), now under FBI scrutiny in the USA, are Christians:* Mr.K.P.Regi, Executive Director of TRO,* Mr. Lawrence Thilagar, TRO Project Co-ordinator,* Mr. Lawrence Christie, Planning Director of the TRO* Mr.E.Robert, Administrative Head of the TRO Accelerated Rehabilitation Project.* Mr. Vincent, TRO"s Director of Tsunami Rehabilitation and Construction* Mr.P.Mariyanayagam Croos (Cruz), President of the Mannar TRO,* Ms. P.Mariina Croos (Cruz) of the Mannar TRO* Yude Genoba of the Mannar TRO6. The 4 Reverend Fathers A.Jeyakumar, S.E. Arnold, P. Anukular and J. Thevarudchelvam from Mullaitivu Diocese and Mr J Rajanayagam from Jaffna Diocese(all from Church of South India) were the chief guests at TRO functions held to distribute fishing nets, boats and houses to the Tsunami victims.

i like that you have a blog and chose to express your views passionately giving us a moderate muslim voice....hmm sort of! hope to read more,

here are some thoughts on this piece though

1. I agree that certain languages lend themselves to a certain feel/tone/mood/vibrations but to go so far as to say that Muslims were the best/famous lovers.. !That is because most Muslims in India and Pakistan are not educated about any other Culture/Religion properly...added to that you have Mughal rulers and British colonialists!! Every region and state in India has its own amorous couples...in fact Sanskrit Literature is FULL of those. Not trying to outdo Laila Majnu and I love Urdu/Farsi but just saying ki aashiq hum bhee hain :)2.Why should only Muslims feel proud of the TAJ MAHAL? Is it because it was commissioned by a Mughal King? All the masons were NOT Muslim though...Plus, I hope the Muslim community will go beyond Islamic Architecture, much of it being beautiful no doubt, to admire exquisite Jaina, Buddhist and Hindu Architecture/Temples too...the aesthetics are different, Taj is definitely not superior to say a Dilwara in Mt Abu or a Brihadeeshwara in Tanjavur.3.LTTE was very very CHRISTIAN.Prabhakaran was a Christian. The group was mainly fanatical, idealogues, more athiest than true believers of course.

Came across your Blog Through wikipedia while searching for couplets of zauq :-) Well, tajmahal is a mixture f indO-islamic architecture meaning by hindu plus muslim or more precisely mughal architecture. And its the architecture of which every indian should feel proud about. Even those fundamentalists who send hate mails (referring to your BHAINS K AGE BIN BAJANA wala article). Its an awesome piece. Please continue your work. Looking forward to read more. Akshat

Amazing post! Good you stopped abdruptly. There is lot to write and i can understand your emotions.

The more I am reading your posts , the more I feel, you should replicate yourself as many times and inspire the depressed and hopeless youngsters following Islam.

Even till date only 10 out of 100 muslim boys in India are career oriented. Do not mind me sounding rude, if in any case. But its true .

Those who are using there brains into right things are surely the well - deserved chaps .

I have my Muslim friends(i am only emphasising muslim here, just to highlight the issue.one of them is more important than my life)most of them are of the view that they should change their dwelling to some better locality (non-muslim). They doubt they wil be able to give their kids, a healthy society as they feel it was quite difficult to be the odd one out and avoid wasting time loitering on streets, like most of their friends in locality.They were often bullied as Bookworms and gays, just because they were concentrated on studies. to this i said better within those years you do all it takes to improve things in your locality. Give responsbility like teaching small kids , to teenage boys loitering around on bikes, staring at passer-bys.I was turned down by saying , "i am not Anna". bUt I insisted, its high time anyone has to be one(muslim). How long will we get away by saying , Is Desh ka Kuch Nahi Hoga ! MySay.in

You have tried your best to be rational in your thoughts but you could not evade your emotion. It is difficult I understand. Don't try to misinterpret facts. I will request you to have more insights into the matters. Try to be a good human being rather than a muslim if you can. Best of luck.

I do not expect any sort of peaceful solution without learning to tolerate our differences. Unfortunately we tend to behave like "either my way, or the high way". I hope God brings peace to your country India.

LTTE didn't carry out those bombings for sake of Hinduism thus we cannot say Hindu terrorism! there are so many riots killings etc on the name of Islam that is the reason people stereotyping Muslims! remember Bajrangdal activist killed Christian pastor Grahm steins and his two young children? you can call him a Hindu terrorist but not LTTE...

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